Watermelon Pick N Cut

*** 9/4/2016
Accompanying video now available at YouTube—"Watermelon Pick N Cut" 
 

It's a good time of the year to have your pick of watermelons for quality, quantity, and price. My picking method is the one that a cousin told me about her father using—"Pick the ugly one." My method of cutting chunks and storing unused the unused portion for later cuts helps prevent mushiness, thus, extending the refrigerator life of the melon. Read the entire article and comment there, please.

Confetti Cupcake Bites

My recipe makes half-size cupcakes, using nonpareils and jimmies in two half batches during one baking session. Contrast the results of the sprinkle types, and decide on your own single or duo sprinkle-type morsels. Read the entire article and comment there, please.

Rainbow Nonpareil Cake Mix Cookies

Multicolor sprinkle decorations for packaged cookies, cakes, and cake mixes tend to more often be jimmies than nonpareils. These cookies vary from the ones I made when I used the Betty Crocker Rainbow Chip cake mix. Instead of using cake mix that already includes multicolor jimmies, I used basic cake mix and added rainbow nonpareils. Read the entire article and comment there, please.

Instant Pancake Mix, Info Table, Etc., for 12 Brands

Previously, I wrote Whataburger pancakes, Whataburger pancake mix, and scratch pancakes. Recently, a relative told me that she used to cook pancakes from scratch for her kids when they were growing up. At that time, no companies made convenient pancake powder, the "complete" kind that required only water. Read the entire article for the 12-brand info compilation and comment there, please.

Whataburger Pancakes, Mix, or Scratch

Tried Whataburger pancakes? Yummy, quick, and economical! Know that you can buy Whataburger Pancake Mix at HEB? Have you tried making scratch pancakes? Also yummy, even more economical, but not quick! The scratch recipe, which I've used for many years (with slight occasional tweaks) … Read the entire article and comment there, please.

Why Are So Many Tortilla Chips Triangles?

These shapes force the eater to form a Wallace (of Wallace and Grommit) mouth shape for minimizing messiness when the chips have flavor powders, dip, queso, or nacho toppings. These chips can be (and have been) hazardous, especially if the toppings are hot, melted, or both. Ow! Read the entire article and comment there, please.

Baking Cookies with Trader Joe Cake MIx

Instead of the standard cake mix that weighs about 15.25 ounces or so to make cake mix cookies, the Trader Joe's cake mix weighed 28 ounces. This baking experiment required some improvisation that produced results that differ from my standard cake mix cookies. Read the entire article and comment there, please.